The present invention relates to improvements in poultry cages.
The raising of poultry within confinement cages for egg-production purposes has become the predominant system in this and other countries. The principal reason for this is the many operating advantages and efficiencies realized from such systems.
With the advent of spiraling costs for building, land, and materials, continued efforts are made to reduce the amount of material and expense for each confinement cage as well as seeking new ways for increasing the number of poultry which can be raised or kept in a given floor space. Recently, it has been acknowledged that more efficient production per hen can be realized by providing cages having a greater width and a shallower depth such that the hens can all simultaneously have access to a feeding trough extending along the front of the cages. By providing multi-levels of confinement cages including watering, feeding, egg collecting, manure collecting, and general servicing of the cages, the structure of such multi-tiered cages has become increasingly complex resulting in arrangements which can increase rather than reduce the overall cost per hen even though a reduction in floor space and an increase in output has been achieved.
Thus, there exists a need for a multi-tiered cage system which increases the density of confined poultry with regards to floor space while at the same time providing a structurally rigid subassembly which can be coupled to other subassemblies to provide an installation which significantly reduces the overall cost involved per hen.